A jolt of pain hit her. She grunted and fell to her knees, still holding the bars. Tanya had struck her with a sort of bolt. A sort of electrical bolt…
Rein forced her head up and stared past Helena at a militia of maimed and disfigured creatures. They just
appeared
.
“
We wanted you and Traith to be ours,” Helena said, straightening her back and twitching her web-like wings. “We always have. Not dead. You are too valuable to kill.
Especially
you. So powerful…Traith does deserve some credit for realizing something as obvious as that.”
Tanya dropped her head as she closed the great, iron door, leaving Rein Pierson behind. For some reason, she actually had become nervous; a feeling she hadn’t experienced in over a
century
.
Helena unfolded her wings and flapped them angrily, staring at her. “Damn you, Tanya, what is wrong?”
“
Helena,” she started uneasily. “It’s just…”
“
What?”
Tanya looked tensely at the werewolf, Ben, who shook his head and walked by them. It was funny how little power he had over his wife.
“
What
?” Helena yelled again.
Tanya fingered her dress’s sash. “Helena, Rein could have killed me—
easily
, if only she had known what it was that could—”
“
What is your point?”
“
That vampire has been blessed with abilities that no other creature could ever possibly acquire. She’s more than just a vampire. She’s more potent than even you, Helena, and with everyday she becomes stronger, whether she realizes it or not…”
“
Are you saying she’ll
prevail
?” Helena circled her with a grin, her wings wide and ferocious. “Destroy us? Win for her council? What are you
speaking of
, hmm?”
She hesitated. “Now that I’ve thought about it…see, I’ve been through Ana’s notes. She’s watched Rein, and now…I just don’t know. I’m feeling doubtful. I believe we would be better off leaving her
dead
than
alive
. While we have her powerless.”
“
What?”
“
If not, we could all die, Helena. She, by herself, may even be able to destroy our council, and nearly alone too if she channels herself right…”
Helena gasped in fury and then smiled harder. “So your doubtful, Tanya. Have you not seen my militia? Have you not witnessed us turn and transform thousands of people into bloodthirsty ravagers? Doubtfulness has no hold on
me
, and the foolish murder of a most powerful vampire doesn’t seem to tickle my fancy, when she could be ours.
Hear me
?” she enunciated with gritted teeth, her fangs jetting down below her lip.
A door opened and interrupted Helena’s direct attention. Ana Harker slid timidly from behind it.
“Ah, Ana,” Helena cooed. “Tanya says you take wonderful notes on your brother’s doings. Is that so?”
Ana straightened. “Yes. S-strictly research, however. Because, you said you wanted any information—”
“
Of course, of course,” Helena replied, patting Ana on the back. Then she bent down and whispered into her ear. “Then study your notes and find me the best way to lure him and his pet, Rein,
into
my council. Last chance, dear Ana. Or I’ll murder him gruesomely. I will not wait any longer for him to join us.”
Tanya felt herself boiling when she saw Ana flinch at Helena’s words.
“
His loyalty is strong, but I think we can break him,” Helena said, jaunting toward a locked door. “We will win him, this time. We must.” She laughed, and her fangs sparkled under saliva. “Now come along, Ben. Let us make love until someone must die.” She laughed again spitefully and took Ben’s arm, who very ungracefully transformed from his wolf form into his human form, and both of them disappeared behind the door in a single instant, leaving Tanya and Ana alone.
“
And you,” she spat, turning and facing Ana coldheartedly. “If you show even the slightest bit that you care at all, I’ll—”
“
Care…care at all about what?”
“
Your
brother
, you idiot! When he comes, and I do say
when
, you’d better fight him with everything your puny self has got, or I’ll murder you myself!”
With that, she turned and walked down the remainder of the hallway and through a door.
Ana’s eyes slowly filled with tears. She wiped her face so Tanya wouldn’t see. Ana had so far proved her loyalty, but Tanya knew that for over a hundred years Ana hadn’t had to worry about her brother. Now that she had to, Tanya feared she would not be strong enough, and Helena seemed to rely on Ana. Of course, that could only be a front. But Tanya knew that Ana would not be dedicated enough to kill her only brother and one remaining relative.
Truth be told, she would
love
to be the one to murder Ana.
Rein listened quietly to the periodic dripping in the cell. The bars that locked her in were grimy and wet. It had only been moments ago that she found herself here, and she sat on her knees in silence, the dampness of the stone below her chilling her legs. She was hardly dressed as it was—she’d been in the chemise she’d slept in when Tanya showed up at the castle.
The quiet, repetitive dripping was drowned out by the opening of a door.
It was
Ana
.
Rein caught eye contact with her for only a moment, but she walked quickly by and looked ahead. She began to press buttons on some type of machine Rein had never seen before.
Rein let out a breath and forced herself to stand. She leaned against the bars, and with that noise, she got Ana to look in her direction.
Rein said nothing.
Ana hesitated and then awkwardly looked down again. After she hit a few more buttons, Ana turned to check something beside the cell.
Rein reached out and grabbed her arm.
Ana gasped and gritted her teeth. She tried to rip out of Rein’s grasp, but that was useless.
“
Shh, I need to talk to you, please,” Rein whispered. “I can’t
do
anything to you from in here. I wouldn’t anyway.”
Ana relaxed her arm, but her stare was tenser than ever.
“
Ana,” Rein said, “Don’t let them hurt your brother.”
“
What?”
“
Traith
loves
you. You don’t have the whole picture of him—you couldn’t. Why are you so desperate to
kill
him?”
She shook her head continuously. “I do love him, but I will not…” She began to whimper and back up. “I cannot be with him anymore. Let
go
.”
“
Why
?
Why
not?”
Ana paused, and they stared at each other with a deep gaze. “Because he’ll kill me,” she said trembling.
Rein was puzzled. If Ana
did
love Traith, what did she mean?
Ana looked down, and a tear fell to the ground. “I want him back,” Ana murmured. “But he can’t ever come back.” Her voice was shaking as tears fell down her cheeks. She looked up at Rein sorrowfully. “He isn’t the same. He can’t be. Not after what he did to me. To us. And I have to
kill
him for it. I must, to avenge them.”
“
Avenge who?” Rein watched Ana’s face closely.
“
I was alone,” Ana whispered, grasping the bars. “Alone, standing in a deserted road, calling out for Traith. A dark figure appeared in front of me. It dropped two bodies onto the dirt road in front of me. It was both my
parents
,
dead
. The figure looked up at me, eyes glowing in the night. They were red. Wet fangs glistened in the moonlight. I backed up and screamed, crying and covering my mouth.” She was crying as silent as she could, checking with frightened speed to make sure no one was around. “The dark figure in front of me was Traith. He had disappeared only a few weeks before.”
Her brother…killed…their…
Rein put her hands on her head and shook it, falling to her knees. “No,” she murmured. “No, that isn’t…”
Ana backed up and flinched. A slamming of a door—Tanya.
“
What are you doing in here?” Tanya asked, waltzing in with a face full of malevolence.
Ana shook her head, trying desperately to hide her tears. “I was
doing
what I was
assigned
to do, Tanya, with the generators.”
All the pain was so real. The anguish and the anger and the feeling, all so real and in her head, almost—
without having even read Ana’s mind
—almost as if she’d
lived
it. Jolts and flashes corrupted her. She thought she was going insane. Thoughts, whether they were her true memories or simple thoughts, were spiraling. She didn’t want them in her head. They weren’t hers.
How were they not
hers
?
She couldn’t use her powers in that cell, but somehow she fed into Ana’s mind. She’d gotten into Ana’s mind and not even
purposely
.
She could easily go mad with them. If she broke down…
She couldn’t. She had to maintain something to keep from caving in. But she was a
clairvoyant
. She couldn’t always block out thoughts, especially because she’d stolen a memory and lived it in a matter of moments—especially by
accident
and
impossibility
. She could hardly think straight.
She looked up at Ana, mouth open. “No, he…d-don’t
believe
that, Ana! Traith didn’t—he couldn’t have!”
Ana stood, the anger in her eyes turning soft. She was having a hard time lying in front of Tanya. “What are you talking about, Rein?”
Rein couldn’t focus; she couldn’t focus on anything but her head. All she could do was hold it and speak thoughts quietly, sorting thoughts out. She was receiving more than Ana’s thoughts—she was receiving parts of her memory, living it—and most vital of all, pieces of Traith’s past.
How was this happening?
It
hurt
. Suddenly she couldn’t even
think
about Traith without seeing…
“
He doesn’t know,” Rein whispered through the piercing feeling in her head. “He doesn’t remember—he doesn’t
remember anything
,
Ana
! This council
took it from him
!”
Ana’s stare became grave, but she was forced away by Tanya—the person Rein didn’t want to see, because with her came pain.
Suddenly in an abrupt flash of light, Traith saw Mistress standing in front of them. He was in the council. Taverin was, too. His leader’s face was concerned. Actually concerned. He heard the girl beside him gasp.
“
Harker! Where is your partner?” the Mistress asked angrily.
Traith wanted to say something sarcastic, but refrained with difficulty. “Don’t you know?” he asked. “She just disappeared with Tanya, I was hoping you—”
She cocked her head and curled her lips in anger. “She only lets
you
feel her, Traith. Can you not?”
“
What?” he questioned, shocked. “You cannot see her?”
The leader paused. “So you cannot feel her.”
He wanted to say yes, but… “No,” he murmured.
“
I knew this was coming,” Mistress said to herself. “It was foolish of me not to search deeper. Fortunately I know how to get you into the Mardinial Council, where I am more than sure she is. But getting you back will be a problem. It is located in a place neither in this world nor on another—in a place between consciousness and unconsciousness. Between darkness and light. A place from which your teleportation might not be able to reach. Ah, I sensed a great hardship coming.” She paused a moment. “Taverin.” Mistress walked up and put her hand on the girl’s head, not completing her sentence.
Traith stepped aside and watched the girl stare anxiously. “You can keep her here, can’t you?” he asked.
“
No!” Taverin protested. “No, please! I can help—give me a weapon, something, I’ll do whatever I can to get Rein back, please!”
“
Miss Badeau,” Mistress spoke softly. “You do understand the gravity of what you have just asked?”
Taverin swallowed and wiped her eyes. “Yes, but if they need me, I want to help. I am not a little girl, I can at least try.”
Mistress looked at her for a moment. “I believe fighting for her sister may very well be better for her,” she said.
“
Mistress
,” Traith cut in, exasperated. “She’s only a mortal girl, and a frail one at that! Why the devil are you possibly thinking this would be
good
for her?”
“
I have a book I can let you use, Taverin. A spell book. Speak an incantation, and its effect will be activated. You need no training to use it.” It suddenly appeared in the old woman’s hand. “I have arranged that only
you
may use it.”